{"id":99759,"date":"2013-08-11T10:50:43","date_gmt":"2013-08-11T05:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=99759"},"modified":"2013-08-15T12:23:47","modified_gmt":"2013-08-15T06:53:47","slug":"gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/","title":{"rendered":"Gordon Weiss And The Dynamics Of Redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Darshanie Ratnawalli<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Darshanie Ratnawalli<\/p><\/div>\n

Not for personal gain is this exercise of mine but in pursuit of redemption. Redemption is a curious thing. To counter every wrong pattern that gets drawn on the canvas of existence, it draws some other pattern, next to which the wrong pattern looks so godawful and out of place that it soon gets erased by the collective forces of existence.<\/p>\n

Gordon Weiss<\/a><\/span> too has sat in front of his computer and drawn the following pattern;<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hitherto relatively contiguous area that has formed the basis for a Tamil claim to a historic homeland will be broken up and interspersed with hundreds of army camps, staffed by Sinhalese soldiers\u2026There is nothing new about the creeping erasure of Tamil territorial claims in the name of development\u2026Archeologists and historians, sanctioned by the government, unleashed on to conquered territory and possibly funded by UNESCO, will supply the academic legitimacy for the \u2018re-territorialisation\u2019 of Sri Lanka. Eventually, postcards will be printed of newly minted Buddhist sites in formerly Tamil areas, and tour guides will regale sightseers with stories of their discovery and antiquity. Just two weeks after Prabhakaran<\/a><\/span>\u2019s death, the president\u2019s wife unveiled a statue of Sanghamiththa\u2026the woman who \u2013 two and a half thousand years before- is said to have brought a seedling of the holy Bo tree to Sri Lanka. The statue now sits in the middle of one of the HSZs, in the heart of Tamil Jaffna\u2026\u201d- (\u2018The Cage\u2019<\/em>, pp.255-256)<\/p>\n

Even the sheer godawfulness of this passage generated by the ignorance of its 21st<\/sup> century Australian author is redeemable. A 17th<\/sup> century Dutch mapmaker redeems it by his cartographical representation of Jaffna[i]<\/a> (held at the Nationaal Archief, Netherlands, but viewable online at beeldbank.nationaalarchief.nl\/na:col1:dat516410<\/a>). He wouldn\u2019t have known that he was being an agent of redemption[ii]<\/a> when he drew up this map of a Jaffna where Sinhalese and Tamil place names exist side by side. He was just exercising his craft in the service of imperial Holland. To him a Jaffna that could be interspersed with a Cottiewatte, Noenavil game, Watane, a Walandale, Lilagamo, Tangode, a Tambale, Batecotte, Anecotte, Naloer, Oergavature, Nagamoene, Tambegamo, Mepale, Pollopalle, Alipalle, Malwattoe, a Walewitakepoelo, etc. would have been business as usual, with no special significance. The fact that four centuries later, demographic changes both colonial state sponsored and natural, would render a major territorial division of his map Welligamo into Valikamam and leave a Vimankamam in place of his Vimangamo and affect almost total erasure of its Sinhalese names, would have, if known, filled the cartographer with indifference. If told that four centuries of political upheaval would make his map an embarrassing skeleton in the cupboard to a political ideology aspiring to own the SL reconciliation space in the global mind map, the cartographer would have tuned out in sheer incomprehension.<\/p>\n

Yet four centuries later, the Redemptive Dynamic[iii]<\/a> turns this Dutch cartographer into an agent and his map into a beacon that exposes the human frailty or the psychical darkness behind the Weiss tenets contained in the above excerpt, such as \u2018Tamil Jaffna\u2019, \u2018Tamil territorial claims\u2019, \u2018Tamil claims to a historic homeland on the basis of a contiguous area\u2019. It reveals the plight of men, who accept international postings under global organizations to complex countries swearing to uphold liberal principles, only to get bent by reason of their garden variety intellects into buying ethnic cleansing agendas for multicultural spaces. This agent of the Redemptive Dynamic and his beacon also show the sheer superfluity of \u201cunleashing historians and archeologists on conquered territory\u201d with or without UNESCO funding to give \u201cacademic legitimacy to the re-territorialisation of Sri Lanka\u201d. All one has to do is give out framed copies of this map to the sections of the populace entertaining doubts about the legitimacy of the said re-territorialisation. In fact, I am not sure if the Redemptive Dynamic didn\u2019t overdo it a bit with this map. There\u2019s such a thing as having it too easy.<\/p>\n

Re Sangamittha, that \u201cwoman\u201d is indeed said by the Pali chronicle of Lanka to have landed in Jambukolapattana with the Bo sapling. But as this same chronicle was instrumental in establishing the identity of even this woman\u2019s father in the inscriptions of India, it seems reasonable to assume that the chronicle was on the ball re the Asokan connection and she did indeed land in Jambukolapattana, which port is widely accepted by historians as belonging to the peninsula.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026\u2026..a brief reference to the regional and not merely Sri Lankan importance of the translation of the Mahavamsa. In time it became the source for determining the identity of Devanampiya Piyadassi mentioned in a series of inscriptions on pillars and rocks in many parts of India, an identification eventually confirmed in the early 20th century, as the great Emperor Asoka. \u2026\u201d-\u00a0(<\/strong>K M De Silva: Emerson Tennent Memorial Lecture: JRASSL, NS, VOL. XLI, Special Number, 1996<\/em>)-<\/strong><\/p>\n

Did we really have as a UN official a man who was capable of regarding the celebration of this cultural association in Jaffna, as a violation and an abomination? The shock is fully comparable to seeing running sores on the body of a beauty contestant during the swimsuit round.<\/p>\n

*<\/em>The writer can be found at\u00a0http:\/\/ratnawalli.blogspot.co.uk\/and rathnawalli@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

[i]<\/a> Kaart van Jaffanapatnam en onderhoorige landen en eilanden (Map of Jaffanapatnam countries and islands and dependencies)<\/a>. Browsers such as Google Chrome let you translate the web page into English. Get it full screen and start spotting the Sinhala place names.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[ii]<\/a> There are other agents of redemption at large who help us by emphasizing the layered heritage of Jaffna. See for example; \u201cThe Kokila Sandesaya narrates the longest of the journeys from the southernmost point on the island, Devinuwara (Dondra) to its northernmost city, Yapa Patuna (Jaffna). It names seventy-two places along the journey. Some of the Sinhala place-names on the northern leg of the journey are no longer identifiable, because these areas are now home to a mainly Tamil population.\u201d-<\/p>\n

(Pieris, Anoma (2010) ‘Avian Geographies: An Inquiry into Nationalist Consciousness in Medieval Lanka’, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 33: 3, 336 \u2014 362)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I talked about the layered heritage of the North in \u201cCommunal claims on common land<\/a><\/em>\u201d. That article grew out of a conversation I had with a historian.<\/p>\n

H- \u2018I have mailed you that article by Anoma Pieris\u2019.
\nMe- \u2018She is the granddaughter of G. C. Mendis isn\u2019t she?\u2019
\nH- \u2018Yes. She is at Uni of Melbourne. Thought the bit about the northern leg of the journey might interest you\u2019.<\/p>\n

Me- \u2018That the 15th<\/sup> century Kokila Sandesaya should list Sinhala place names on its northern leg?\u00a0 Hardly a revelation. Take a look at that 17th<\/sup> century Dutch map\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

[iii]<\/a> Another agent of redemption who emphasized the layered heritage of Jaffna very early on is Codrington; \u201cThe place-names in the peninsula indicate that it was held by Sinhala inhabitants at no very remote date, \u2026\u201d said he in Chapter VI, Short history of Ceylon, 1926. I have this mental picture of Codrington yawning from the Great Beyond when in 1965 the PhD student K. Indrapala highlighted \u201c<\/strong>the toponymic evidence involving over a thousand place names of distinctly Sinhalese origin \u2018in Tamil garb\u2019\u201d presented by the Jaffna peninsula.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":85713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nGordon Weiss And The Dynamics Of Redemption - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gordon Weiss And The Dynamics Of Redemption - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-11T05:20:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-08-15T06:53:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/darshanie-ratnawalli-11.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"306\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/\",\"name\":\"Gordon Weiss And The Dynamics Of Redemption - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/darshanie-ratnawalli-11.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-11T05:20:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-08-15T06:53:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/darshanie-ratnawalli-11.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/darshanie-ratnawalli-11.jpg\",\"width\":\"280\",\"height\":\"306\",\"caption\":\"Darshanie Ratnawalli\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gordon Weiss And The Dynamics Of Redemption\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Gordon Weiss And The Dynamics Of Redemption - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Gordon Weiss And The Dynamics Of Redemption - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2013-08-11T05:20:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-08-15T06:53:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":280,"height":306,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/darshanie-ratnawalli-11.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/","name":"Gordon Weiss And The Dynamics Of Redemption - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/darshanie-ratnawalli-11.jpg","datePublished":"2013-08-11T05:20:43+00:00","dateModified":"2013-08-15T06:53:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/darshanie-ratnawalli-11.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/darshanie-ratnawalli-11.jpg","width":"280","height":"306","caption":"Darshanie Ratnawalli"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gordon-weiss-and-the-dynamics-of-redemption\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Gordon Weiss And The Dynamics Of Redemption"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/darshanie-ratnawalli-11.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99759"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99764,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99759\/revisions\/99764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}